I’ll take the black eye every time

Sean Connery’s ex wife, Diane Cilento, carelessly told Playboy in 1965: ‘I don't think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a man. An open-handed slap is justified…. If a man is a bastard, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually, then I’d do it.’ No problems there then…. oh, sorry, that was Sean about women; so he’s a vile brute. Anyway, Diane, 40 years later and aged 72, is talking for the ‘first time’ (amongst other things we assume) about a balmy night in the same 1965 when she recalls, ‘I was drunk, once inside our room in the darkness, I felt a blow to my face and was knocked to the floor and passed out for a few seconds.’ Mmmmm, ok. This, she hopes, is enough to make you rush out and buy her book. Isn’t it a shame that every ex-celeb ‘life story’ seems to rely on at least one nasty episode of sex or violence, or better both, and rubbishing someone else’s life to sell. Meanwhile, vile Sean has no way of responding. Too often reputations and lives are gratuitously destroyed. Is this really fair I wonder or is it just equally nasty blackmail? If I had to choose between a slap and having my life and reputation dragged through the gutter I’d go for the black eye every time. I’m sure Sean would agree.